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What happened to the electric car?
#11
I'm not a scientist or engineer, but I suppose someone somewhere has compared the environmental impact of the electric car with the infernal combustion engine? Unless one has a wind generator in the garden the electricity to charge the batteries has to be sourced from a commercial power company which is just as likely to be gas, oil, coal or nuclear, not exactly environmentally impact free. Car and battery production also use some pretty toxic manufacturing processes.

I love the idea of being able to get around in a manner that places no stress on the environment, but the reality of my life is very different and I guess I'm not the only one.

Any government that is truly serious about encouraging people out of their cars has to put in place a seriously workable public transport infrastructure first. The privatised systems we now have are very unlikely to come up with the necessary investment to do anything other than tinker with existing custom and practice. They are handcuffed to the shareholders and their need for "healthy" bonuses. A trip into town for an evening is unthinkable in rural areas without a car, or a very expensive taxi. My 180 mile round trip to the nearest airport by train often costs much more than the 1200 miles of flying that follows it, although I can forget trying to get there before 10 am or arriving back after 8pm. Railcards are meant to encourage repeated use of the train, but are unusable when they might be most useful. If I want to use my railcard to get into London, I cannot get there much before mid-day. I could (and would prefer to) do my whole journey between The Fens and Geneva by train, but what incentive is there when the train journey costs four times as much? Sometimes one has to be able to afford one's principles Cry

Things are a little better in France, but I am at a loss to see why a 90 minute drive takes 6 hours by train. The urban transport system over the border in Geneva is pretty good, but again an evening out is dictated by the timetabling of buses in France.

London has recently pioneered free transport for young people, a bold and imaginative attempt to get people into the habit of using public transport. Unfortunately, there have been some problems with examples of anti-social behaviour spoiling this experiment. Travelling by public transport has too many stories of things happening to people that make them feel unsafe at night and, sadly, sometimes during the daytimes too.

As for buses, being less polluting ... have you ever stood behind one? :eek:

Sorry, we were talking about electric cars, weren't we? Whoops :redface:
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#12
marshlander Wrote:London has recently pioneered free transport for young people, a bold and imaginative attempt to get people into the habit of using public transport.

And as per usual... I missed out on these freebies.

Free transport / EMA grants etc..

OR.. we ended up being the first year to try new things... ie the guinea pigs!

Year 2 SAT tests / AS Levels... I swear the world has it in for all the 1984 babies!!
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#13
wouldlikemuscle Wrote:And as per usual... I missed out on these freebies.

Free transport / EMA grants etc..

OR.. we ended up being the first year to try new things... ie the guinea pigs!

Year 2 SAT tests / AS Levels... I swear the world has it in for all the 1984 babies!!
Good job you're not from Scotland too then. Blame Eric Blair. Wink
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#14
Just when I've saved enough money,I'm planning to trade in my Corolla for a 2nd hand Toyota Prius,can't hardly wait.C'mon guys,the Toyota Prius isn't that expensive.I know many people that have these humungous gas-guzzling SUVs but I guess they attach status to those cars,at the expense of our planet's future.Nothing ticks me off faster than those damn Hummers!God,I despise those damn things & their owners tend to be arseholes.
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#15
Dan1089 Wrote:Just when I've saved enough money,I'm planning to trade in my Corolla for a 2nd hand Toyota Prius,can't hardly wait.C'mon guys,the Toyota Prius isn't that expensive.I know many people that have these humungous gas-guzzling SUVs but I guess they attach status to those cars,at the expense of our planet's future.Nothing ticks me off faster than those damn Hummers!God,I despise those damn things & their owners tend to be arseholes.


Even the Toyota Prius looked expensive to me... Maybe I ought to change jobs and get one that PAYS!!! But no, I think I'll stick to my job and NOT buy a car. I'm hoping the public transport system WILL improve and so will sollutions to global warming. I don't really mind walking, but I do hate wasting 6 hours when 1h30 in a car would have done the job. (see Marshlander's post... that was ludicrous! :mad: ). Agree with you about the SUVs, Dan, they are silly, especially in town where there's already little parking space. They just climb onto the curb and take up all the pedestrian space.
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#16
I actually recently drove a prius when I was home as my rental car. I was very curious as I'd never driven a hybrid before and I have to say it was kind of a mixed bag.

Things I liked about it include the back up camera, which is awesome I think every car should have one, I like the fact that is averaged about 42 MPG, and I like the MFD to control the radio and heater.

Things I did not like were its not a very fast car, and it doesn't accelerate well at all, although I did get it up to 100 MPH just to see if it would do it, and it did, but it was straining hard to get there. Cold weather performance was terrible. I was home for 8 days and the 3rd day it snowed about 8 inches, when I went out to the car it took almost ten minutes to get it going. Part of the reason for that was my next complaint lol. The ignition and transmission are completely electrically controlled IE there's no mechanical backup, which means you are completely at the mercy of the car's computer and if it dies you're stuck.

So anyway, I think honestly a truly marketable all electric car won't be feasible until they get good enough batteries in them so that they have similar endurance to current cars. What good is an electric car if you have to recharge is every 100 miles. Like many other interesting technologies when we solve the battery issue we may just have this one licked.
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